Pages

2012-10-10

Ikiru

Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)

A bureaucrat tries to find a meaning in his
life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.

Takashi Shimura is
an actor I’ve already bragged about in my recent review of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Well, be prepared to read
some more in this new review. They collaborated together eleven times and while
Kurosawa was 42 at the time they did Ikiru,
Shimura was 47. Of the three most celebrated Kurosawa films you have the
aforementioned Seven Samurai, Rashômon, and finally Ikiru or if you prefer translated as To Live. Out of the samurai genre,
Kurosawa made some of his most interesting stories and the most philosophically
charged ones too. As a Kurosawa
enthusiast, I pretty much rank the three film in this particular order. However,
with the time and multiple viewings, Ikiru
seems like a film that grows with its viewer and develops into something that
age, time, experience, and life brings as one of the forefront runners of the
emperor’s filmography.

Watanabe (Shimura) learns that he doesn’t have much
time to live, he is dying of a cancer. Just like anyone who gets a similar
news, he is shocked and reacts strongly. Knowing that he will die brings to him
that he did not even started to live yet. Ikiru
portrays a two and a half hour quest to find the meaning of this man’s life and
his simple but yet touching passage. This is a very humanist tale of
understanding the common life of everyone. It faces our inevitable passage
through time, aging, and the facing our own death someday.

Shimura delivers a very solid performance and his
ability to be a common man just like James
Stewart or Henry Fonda makes him
one of the most human faces to deliver such a near perfect act. His presence is
almost like the one of a ghost who wanders in the final moments of his own
life. Knowing that he is doomed by destiny, his encounters are sublime moments
of greatness.

As stated in my review about Seven Samurai and Rashômon,
my two favourites Kurosawa, Ikiru
stands strongly with the sheer brilliance of Red Beard, the colourful Ran
and Kagemusha. However, the film that
stands out the most after multiple viewings and that sticks in mind just like a
master’s lesser known masterpiece, Ikiru
might be one of Kurosawa’s most universal film. Released worldwide circa 1960,
because it was considered too Japanese, just like Yasujiro Ozu’s films, Ikiru
should have deserved its spot on the Sight and Sound Top 25. Highly
recommended.

6 comments:

I can not agree more with you. This is a movie that grows so much on repeat viewings. On my first watch, I didn't really care for the first half. But second half is probably one of the best I have ever seen and then when I watched it again, I saw first half completely differently.

Even I would put Rashomon and Seven Samurai ahead of it but Ikiru is just as good as either of them. Great Job !!